Senate

"Libertarians have a messaging problem, not an ideas problem," said Austin Petersen, 36. Ambitious and energetic, he is running for Senate in Missouri, a state President Trump carried by nearly 19 points in November, hoping to win the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Liberty-minded Republicans are running in other states as well.

Following his back-stabbing vote, John McCain, as sympathetic a character as his health issues might make him this week, deserves to feel the sting of a Republican senator. If McCain never returns to the Senate, it is fitting that the last vote he casts will be one which, unfortunately for the nation, adds some credence to the words “He’s no hero.”

We conservatives need to translate the grassroots rage over the betrayals of Republican elected officials into a national conversation about the future of the Republican Party and a wave of national activism to nominate and elect “Drain the Swamp” Republicans to the House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Republican senators voted Tuesday to move forward on their seven-year pledge to repeal portions of Obamacare, with Vice President Mike Pence issuing the tie-breaking vote to unlock hours of debate to assemble details of a final healthcare bill. The vote began as much as 20 hours of debate on the House-passed healthcare bill, the American Health Care Act, and a new bill will be swapped in its place.

If the GOP is smart enough to rally behind the Cruz amendment, and health costs and premiums start falling almost immediately, we will start to have what Obamacare never delivered: affordable care. And by the way, Trump will get reelected in a landslide and so will congressional Republicans.

Through focused, public campaigning, the president could harness that support to ease passage of the healthcare overhaul. In some cases, Trump's influence might create more political support; in others, he might generate pressure that spurs senators to act. Trump has yet to wield the power of the presidency with a speech or vintage Trump campaign rally dedicated to healthcare. His recent campaign-style appearances have been freewheeling affairs, reminiscent of his traveling 2016 road show.

Policymakers have an obligation to convince the public when they are changing laws and policies. Legislative leaders have an obligation to give their members the chance to propose changes, defend their proposals, and, when it is possible, hold votes on their ideas. If your idea for solving a problem doesn't make it into the final bill, it will then be because it lost a vote and lawmakers found a different solution.

An impatient President Trump is putting new pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to get rid of the filibuster in order to speed progress on legislation repealing ObamaCare and reforming the tax code. In a message posted Tuesday on Twitter, Trump urged Republican senators to invoke the so-called nuclear option and “switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy.”

House Republicans have an obligation to their struggling constituents to embrace any idea that can make the bill better—even if it isn’t their own. They also have an obligation to work as open-mindedly with the Senate as they recently did with each other. The enemy isn’t fellow Republicans. It’s ObamaCare.

The Senate is a political body, and its members are politicians. One of the reasons Justice Scalia gave for rejecting as an interpretive tool the statements made by members of Congress when they passed any legislation under scrutiny is the truism that politicians have only one goal in their work, no matter what they are saying — to get re-elected. The senators examining Judge Gorsuch are probably more concerned with that than with doing the right thing for the court. I hope that in this respect, I am wrong, as I have been before.

The left understands Gorsuch to represent the non-political temperament it would exclude from the court, so as to broaden the ability to impose on the American people (bless their pointed heads) plans and objectives for which they have not asked. The left, this time, may not get away with it. Too many of us see what its spokesmen and propagandists are really up to.

Groups on the right, such as Americans for Limited Government, and like-minded lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are pressing GOP leaders to circumvent the parliamentarian this year. They argue that the House version, as written, doesn't have enough GOP votes to pass, so Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will have no choice but to add more provisions that Freedom Caucus members want, such as getting rid of the insurance mandate and required "essential" benefits.

McConnell doesn’t even need to use the nuclear option to destroy a filibuster of Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, though to do so is more than warranted by Schumer’s irresponsible statements. It might even be more entertaining were he to require, in order to sustain the filibuster, that the Democrats actively hold the Senate floor. He ought to tell Schumer to supply his people with lots of Red Bull, protein bars, and adult diapers, if they planned on filibustering Gorsuch — because they’d be up all night.

The confirmation fight over Session has been intense, but it is merely a prelude to the domestic Cold War confrontation we will see over Supreme Court nominations. If Trump names pro-life constitutionalists — as he has promised — the battle cry then must be taken from Ronald Reagan: We win, they lose.

The Coalition to Reduce Spending has created “What’s my Congressman’s Number,” a new project for spending accountability. When it launches in 2017, everyday Americans will be able to view, in real time, how much money their Representatives and Senators are spending.

Now, Mr. Sessions will once again face the United States Senate to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general. The same liberal special interest groups in Washington who thwarted him 30 years ago have declared that they aim to do the same to him this time.

Still nursing their wounds after last week’s thrashing, Democrats already are grappling with how to defend 10 senators up for reelection in 2018 in states that Donald Trump carried, some resoundingly. Republicans are targeting a quintet of senators from conservative states where Trump walloped Hillary Clinton: Montana, Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia. The GOP could amass a filibuster-proof majority by running the table in those states and other battlegrounds.

Republican Senate candidates spent most of the election season running away from Donald Trump, fearful that supporting him would sink their campaigns and cost their party the Senate majority. And yet it was in part Trump’s shocking electoral-college victory against Hillary Clinton that helped Republicans hold the upper chamber against long odds.

"The next three years are the best opportunity in my lifetime for conservative organizations to experience exponential growth"-Richard Viguerie

56 Years of direct mail / direct marketing knowledge can be yours

If your established conservative organization doesn't increase its net income more than $1-5 million in the next 18 months, and double your housefile in three years, you were not paying attention!

CONSERVATIVE YOUTH MARKETING 'DOUBLE YOUR DONORS' SCHOLARSHIP

You can help send one or more young conservatives to learn from the "Funding Father" of the conservative movement about how to increase the size, revenue, and effectiveness of their organizations.

Richard Viguerie's October 12 "Double Your Donors" seminar In Arlington, Virginia, which also features four of his top professionals, will provide insights and training unavailable anywhere else from Richard's 56+ years of growing the conservative movement and electing principled, constitutional conservatives to office.

Young conservatives will spend a day learning Richard's Four Horsemen of Marketing™ and what it takes to build and maintain a large, successful, and effective conservative organization.

As a general rule liberals are far better marketers/communicators than are conservatives. Liberals have far more large non-profit organizations and raise more money for their dangerous ideas than conservatives do for the cause of liberty. And the number one reason is conservatives have few well trained, high level professional direct marketers.

More than ever we need young conservatives to master the skills of grassroots marketing outreach, organization building, and effective political advocacy and campaigning.

A ticket for this seminar is $5,000. For every two tickets purchased under this scholarship program, Richard will donate one.

Your donation will be combined with others to buy a ticket for a young conservative who's dedicated to building the conservative movement. (Of course, you can donate a "full boat" scholarship at $5,000 if you wish, and even choose which organization you want to help.) Your donation will have an impact of 100, 200, even 500 times its value for conservative organizations!

Click here to make your best scholarship gift to help launch a young conservative on a career to help grow the conservative movement and conservative organizations, and win elections for conservatives.

P.S. For every scholarship gift of $100 or more, Richard will send you an autographed copy of his book, Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.